How Do I Know Spindle Bushings are Bad? (1 Viewer)

[supercarrera]

I pulled my spindles and looked at the bushings. One was dry and scratched. The other is scratched also. I think the dry one was causing noise and vibrations that I was experiencing on the way back from Death Valley. Should I automatically replace it? I guess so. But it doesn't look much worse than the other one. Maybe I should replace both.

 

[landtank]

look at the grooves that are on the inside of the bushing. You want to see some wear in there which is evident when the grooves change depth. If the grooves remain a constant depth then it's most likely fine.

When I had this problem I cleaned the bushings by wiping them out with a rag soaked in light machine oil. I then wiped them dry with some shop towels and packed them with moly grease. That was almost 100k ago with an axle job in between.

 

[Tools R Us]

Slip the birf into the spindle and see how much play there is. There should be some play and both should be the same, if one has more play, there's your problem.

 

[BrittonJ85]

I pulled my spindles and looked at the bushings. One was dry and scratched. The other is scratched also. I think the dry one was causing noise and vibrations that I was experiencing on the way back from Death Valley. Should I automatically replace it? I guess so. But it doesn't look much worse than the other one. Maybe I should replace both.

Good morning,

I hate to bring a post from 2007 back to life but wanted to ask did your spindle bushings look as bad as mine?

Also, how bad was the noise? Was it similar to the sound of warped rotors/brakes?

 

[jpoole]

Looks like you may have pics of parts from your 100 series and this is the 80 series area.

In any case you've got the bushings with the rollers that I'd call "bearings" though I don't recall what Toyota calls them. One of your bearings (pics #1 and #2) looks like the rollers came loose and slid to the outboard end of the spindle shaft. It's hard for me to see much more than that from the pics but if I were that far in and the bushings/bearings had many miles on them I'd replace them regardless. Given the roller migration I'd replace both or yours regardless of miles unless you find that it's a normal/ok occurrence.

 

[BrittonJ85]

Looks like you may have pics of parts from your 100 series and this is the 80 series area.

In any case you've got the bushings with the rollers that I'd call "bearings" though I don't recall what Toyota calls them. One of your bearings (pics #1 and #2) looks like the rollers came loose and slid to the outboard end of the spindle shaft. It's hard for me to see much more than that from the pics but if I were that far in and the bushings/bearings had many miles on them I'd replace them regardless. Given the roller migration I'd replace both or yours regardless of miles unless you find that it's a normal/ok occurrence.

Thank you for responding, this information is very helpful. I was also puzzled how my passenger side (better picture attached) spindle bearings looked different from the driver side. My driver side does not have the rollers but my new parts do come with rollers.

I have 299k miles on my 100 series Land Cruiser and plan to replace the wheel and spindle bearings since I do not know when they were replaced and our city streets are unforgiving.

What would make the spindle bearings come loose (age, heat, abuse) and what grease do you recommend using for the wheel and spindle bearings?

Thanks